An Elle & Emmett Scrapbook
by Annie D
Summary: Legally Blonde: The Musical. A series of vignettes on how Elle and Emmett’s friendship evolved over time. This is not a linear story, but overlapping pieces of ficlets that explore different themes. 5 out of 7 completed.
1. Of First Impressions

**Fandom**: Legally Blonde: The Musical  
**Pairing**: Elle/Emmett  
**Summary**: A series of vignettes on how Elle and Emmett's friendship evolved over time. This is not a linear story, but overlapping pieces of ficlets that explore different themes.  
**Genre**: Friendship, romance, fluff.

**An Elle & Emmett Scrapbook**

Once upon a time…

No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Elle Woods and Emmett Forrest fell in love and lived happily ever after. But before that made things complicated and wonderful (usually at the same time), they were first and foremost: friends.

This is a scrapbook of that friendship.

* * *

**Of First Impressions**

Being an only child of an only child, Emmett's early exposure to the wonders of the fairer sex had been limited to the handful of female friends who rolled around the same social circles he did, i.e. they read books, drank coffee and wrote poetry that didn't rhyme. Emmett grew up only vaguely aware of the Pink Fraternity, though there were always in the far fringes of his consciousness where they always talked too loud and dressed even louder. It did not escape his notice that there was always one at the centre of the Pink Fraternity: the blonde with the perfect looks and the perfect body and the perfect boyfriend on her arm.

At the time, Emmett thought of that blonde and her posse as aliens from the fifth dimension, strange and unusual creatures who spoke an entirely different language and practiced bizarre alien rituals. Bradley, Emmett's best friend in junior high, had had a mad crush on their resident blonde, but for the life of him Emmett couldn't see the attraction. Every time Emmett looked at her, he'd had flashbacks to a scarf-wielding Katharine Ross (what? _Stepford Wives_ is a classic), so he was content to let Bradley sigh wistfully for a gal who would in all likelihood be unable to tell the difference between The Shield and Captain America.

At Harvard law, Emmett's student years were not that much of a drought of the blonde phenomena, what with some of the best and brightest having a chirpy sweet young thing on their arm every other weekend. Even so, both members of that brand of couplehood belonged to a social Venn diagram far separate from Emmett's own, and barring that one time in freshman year Emmett caved to a classmate's pushy invitation to join a keg party, Emmett had never been within ten feet of such a bombshell, let alone had a conversation with one.

Seeing Elle Woods for the first time is rather like a seeing a dolphin on a beach.

A chirpy dolphin, all excitable and squeaking and flapping about happily, but a dolphin out of water nonetheless. This first impression, and the analogy that comes with it, proves more accurate than Emmett realises when just like a dolphin out of water, Elle Woods gasps and flounders in the strange new environment she's found herself in. She's a stranger in a strange land, no longer buffered by the comfort zone of the life that'd made her what she is, and rather doomed to drown.

When Emmett throws the lifeline to her, he doesn't know what to expect. A lesser person than Elle would have turned her nose at him; an even lesser person would have used him to further her cause and then discarded him at the first available chance. When he starts this little project, it's mostly because of the dolphin analogy, which quickly turns into a puppy analogy. Emmett could never turn down an abandoned puppy, and despite the warnings he gets about the sort of "person" Elle is, she turns out to have the alarming habit of proving Emmett right and everyone else wrong.

Elle has always been intelligent, Emmett spots that quickly, for it's just that for years she'd honed that intelligence into a pre-ordained destiny dictated to her by her family and friends. But to be honest, her untapped potential doesn't surprise Emmett – because after all, he's travelled that same path of being underestimated, albeit with very different shoes. What _does_ surprise Emmett is that their similar path of proving people wrong turns out to be the first of many things he and Elle have in common.

He'd half-expected them to run out of things to talk about after that time he threw out her vanity collectables; truth be told, he expected her to get bored of him within a week. But the week turns into weeks and the weeks into months, and during that time their vastly different worlds gravitate into something that could be alignment.

At the heart of it is that despite her pepsodent smile and the fact that she can bench-press Emmett's thesaurus collection, Elle is constantly questioning her own worth. She's always thinking of how to try, how to improve, how to do things better, and though she confesses freely to her own impeccable fashion sense, she's always second guessing herself deep down at the core. While they work together on her notes, discussing case files and compiling her reviews, every now and then she looks at him with wide-eyed disbelief, as though craving confirmation that she's doing it right, and that she isn't making a fool of herself.

Even after she puts that first smackdown on Warner in class, and soon after gets Callahan's internship, her eyes continue to dart in Emmett's direction when she thinks no one's watching, and there's that amazement that only he seems to recognize. It's like she only now understands exactly what it takes for people to get where she is, and has trouble believing she could have made it. It's like she's waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Then it does, thanks to Callahan.

Only then does Emmett fully realize just how vulnerable she is. And, just as he has trouble believing Elle's insistence in his own worth ("_Hot? How can she possibly say I look hot? She's my friend, of course she's supposed to tell me stuff like that"_), Elle returns it in folds and refuses to believe him when he insists that she belongs in this brave new world. It's not that she doesn't believe him; it's just that she believes even more that he cares for her too much to tell her the cold, hard truth.

They're so alike.

Emmett has no choice but to bring in an otherwise neutral party to stop Elle from leaving, and Vivienne delivers in spades. Seems like he's not the only one to have first impressions proved wrong.


	2. Of The Opposite Sex

**Of The Opposite Sex**

Elle will always think of Warner Huntington III as her second love (her first love being Todd Wilkins, his status as a fictional character non-withstanding.) Her history with Warner is just that, _history_, and Elle can't imagine what would've happened if Warner hadn't dumped her when he did. It destroyed a part of her, true, but that saying about lemons and lemonade doesn't exist without reason, and Elle's living proof of that.

Back in the early months, when Elle revolves persistently around Warner (before being launched into her own independent orbit), she painstakingly tries to analyse the reasons Warner would want Vivienne instead of her. To say that the Vivienne's introduction is a shock is an understatement, and Elle feels more than a little guilt at the realization that she'd never actually had to _work_ to get a man's attention before. During the earlier years, when things were simpler and a credit card was just a credit card, Elle could (in theory) have had any guy she wanted. Maybe that's why she's all gung-ho about winning Warner back.

Her mom calls Elle "as picky a picky little girl can be, no wonder she chose fashion merchandising". It's true: Elle is extremely picky. Clothes are one thing, but men are the ultimate accessory and Elle would never settle for less than that when it's _her_ heart on the line. That's why when she found Warner, Elle clung on. He was perfect, he was gorgeous, he made her _happy_ in ways that Jimmy Choos never could, and if she lost him, she'd never find anyone else as perfect.

When Emmett enters the picture, it takes a while to register him as, you know, _a guy_, because he's too busy being a friend. And that's actually all kinds of awesome, because when Elle thinks about it, she was never really friends with Warner… They did normal date-type things, but with Emmett there's no need to consciously switch on to Girlfriend Mode. He does get that _look_ whenever she's tripping on a train of thought he can't keep up with, but he never loses interest, even if he has no idea what she's talking about.

It's only about a month into the friendship when, after failing yet another attempt to get Warner's attention by switching to platform heels and denim skirts (a kink he had back in UCLA), Elle turns to Emmett and says, "Hey, you're a guy."

Emmett looks cautious, but acknowledges her statement, and Elle starts a tirade about how sometimes there's no telling what guys want, and what is she doing wrong that she can't get Warner to see just how smokin' she is and just how much she's doing for him. Emmett double-checks that it's a real question, not a rhetorical one, before he starts talking about stuff like The Bigger Picture, Family Expectations and all that jazz. Emmett helpfully adds that Warner can't help being what he is, no more than Elle can help being what she is.

The topic then somehow deviates to Emmett's own taste in women, and for some reason, Elle finds the digression even more interesting than the utter cluelessness of Mr. Huntington III. It takes some prodding and a bucket of ice-cream to get Emmett to spill about his most recent girlfriend, for though she wasn't the love of his life, she helped him put things in perspective, especially about his career and future. Elle asks him what sort of ladies he's interested in, but like men everywhere, Emmett can't describe exactly what he's looking for, if he's actually _looking for_ anyone in the first place. Emmett doesn't seem to like the topic, and quickly distracts Elle by making her sort her cue cards in alphabetical order.

Elle thinks it's a shame that Emmett doesn't have someone to support him (at the time, she doesn't yet realise just how much _he_ is supporting _her_), especially now when he's in something of a slump at the firm. She makes a mental note to set Emmett up with some hot babe that would totally appreciate how amazing he is.

Of course, later Elle ends up being that very babe, though through no conscious planning of her own. It just happens, like lots of things in her life just happen (Harvard, law career, etc.) and when she announces their hook-up to Margot, Serena and Pilar, they merely nod and go, "Ah." Sure, they don't get it at first, but they're not Elle's best friends for nothing, and soon start coming up with devious ways to make Emmett blush in public with their special brand of double-entendre jokes.

However, the double-takes of people who don't know them continue for a few months, and it's pretty much split 50-50 down the line on whether it's Elle or Emmett the double-take is directed at. They make a sport out of getting those looks (usually by "absentmindedly" invading the other's personal space) from people who can't wrap their minds around a girl like Elle being with a guy like Emmett.

Sure, Emmett isn't like any of the other guys that Elle's dated before… But then again, Elle isn't the same woman that she was before either. Perhaps it all balances out.


	3. Of Birthdays

**Of Birthdays**

After the initial forging of their friendship, the first birthday that comes to pass is Emmett's. It's always cold out on his birthday, being the destiny of a Capricorn living in the upper hemisphere, and Emmett previously spent it by allowing himself a brief respite from the hustle and bustle of life by taking the day off and vegetating in his apartment. But on this particular birthday it's barely light out before his cell goes off and he has to listen to Elle belting Happy Birthday at the top of her voice.

Emmett doesn't ask how she knows it's his birthday, and simply lets her talk him into leaving the couch potato rut he'd been planning. He protests half-heartedly just for the show it, but in the end lets her drag him into the city for gourmet pancakes, followed by a black-and-white movie marathon at the indie theatre, which is then capped off by a sad attempt to build a team of snow dogs on campus grounds.

At the end of the day, over dinner, Elle confesses that she had no idea what to give Emmett, so there is no conventional present ready for him, but he assures her that the day was a great present all the same. Elle isn't quite happy with that (and he can tell it's because she feels guilty for not giving him a Christmas present when he got one for her) but when Emmett reaches over and touches her hand, her entire face lights up like it's her birthday instead of his.

The next day, Emmett snoops around Callahan's student files and learns that Elle's birthday is on the following month.

Emmett has even less of a clue of what to give Elle, and he has only one month to figure out it. Between tutorials and study groups, he spends it searching The Pink Room for hints of something he can give that won't be embarrassing for either one of them. Elle is a far cry from other women he's shopped for, and though he has the suspicion that she would be happy no matter what he gives her, it would be nice to have a present that matches the thought.

Four days before the birthday, Emmett visits The Hair Affair in desperation. Paulette looks at him in surprise before her eyes take on a weird twinkling quality and she fluffs about like a person laughing at an inside joke. At first she tells him what he already knows: that Elle would be happy no matter what he gives her, but he insists that he wants to give her something _anyway_, though he doesn't have much in the way of pocket resources.

Paulette then pulls Emmett's ear close and whispers a suggestion apparently borne from a casual conversation she'd had with Elle; something he can easily get from ebay at a reasonable price. Emmett finds one that night and bids on it immediately. It nail-bitingly arrives by post on the morning itself, and in order to work out the wrapping, Emmett has to pass on his planned morning birthday visit for an afternoon one.

Upon his arrival, Elle gets that wibbly look and hugs him, then teasingly says that he didn't have to get her anything, really. As she unwraps the present, Emmett briefly thinks about how she is the sort of woman used to extravagant gifts, but once the item is revealed, her eyes boggle and her mouth falls open in what could only be described as pleasant shock.

"Oh_my_god!" Elle hyperventilates, and launches herself at him for another hug. "Do you have any idea what this _is_?!"

Emmett knows, having searched for it painstakingly on ebay. It's a first generation My Little Pony, mint condition, with accessories still intact. According to Elle (and the ebay seller), the Pony's name is Sundance, and apparently that makes all the difference, because Sundance was Elle's favourite My Little Pony growing up, because she (the Pony, not Elle) has a sob story about how she was clumsy and fell down a lot but ended up saving the day with her fabulousness. Emmett doesn't comment on the obvious subtext.

The next few hours pass by with Elle wandering about in a sort of daze, wistfully telling little stories about her youth in Malibu to Emmett, who trades with stories of his own, and somehow or the other they end up sitting on the floor of her room, hip to hip, and Emmett is hit with the sudden awareness that she is a woman.

Well, of course, he'd always been aware that she is a _woman_, but until that exact moment it had been an abstract idea, far off and not worth recognizing. He'd thought of her as Elle: law student, friend, comrade, unexpected confidant, but never _this_. It's more than a little troubling, because he's a simple man who likes keeping things simple. _Feelings_ would complicate the matter a great deal.

Emmett is both relieved and disappointed that Elle can't spend the rest of the day with him, as she's promised to have dinner with her parents who'd travelled all the way to see her. Emmett then spends that time mentally compartmentalizing Elle, pushing aside the understandable but unwelcome attraction for a friend that is worth so much more.

The next time Emmett's birthday comes around, things are different. Though the friendship is still there, it's lined with deeper stuff, and Emmett's planned in advance to take the day off. They've made an agreement to not do anything extravagant, just simple togetherly things. It starts with breakfast in bed, then a short road trip with random stops to take dorky pictures, before finally stopping at the arboretum for a picnic lunch (since it's too cold out). More pictures and memories are made on the way back, and then a quiet restaurant dinner.

It's a long day, but worth every minute of it, especially when Elle announces right after dessert that she has one more special something-something.

Emmett braces himself, but once they're back at their co-op apartment, Elle runs off to change and returns some twenty minutes later in the hottest, tightest pink jacketed office outfit (complete with tie and horn-rimmed glasses) that could never be seen in the light of day for fear of causing the entire city block radius to spontaneously combust.

"Happy birthday, Mister Forrest," says Elle, who then casually drops a folder, then does the Bend and Snap.

Emmett briefly turns his eyes skyward and thinks a bevy of thoughts that he would never repeat for anyone else under torture of death. Later, when the clock strikes twelve and the day is over, Emmett thinks that he's doomed, because not only is Elle's birthday due next month, so is Valentine's.

* * *

Author's PS: A very helpful person pointed out that in canon, Elle is a Gemini with a double-Capricorn moon, which is absolutely correct and I totally forgot about. (Argh, my bad!) For this fic I'd extrapolated her horoscope from her personality, and upon reflecting on it, the dual-natured Gemini suits her personality just as well as the exuberant Aquarius (which is what I'd chosen for her). I apologize, so please squint through the error. 


	4. Of Domesticity

**Of Domesticity**

When Elle arrives at Harvard law, the first order of business is to give her plain Jane room a complete makeover. It's perfectly within her student rights to do so, and less than 24 hours after touching down in Massachusetts, her room is a pleasantly professional shade of pink. The cans of quick-dry paint are then discarded, replaced instead with boxes of essentials shipped directly from the Woods domicile.

Elle's home has always been her sanctuary, and if she's going to wedge herself into the world that Warner's chosen for himself, then she's damn well going to take a healthy chunk of _her_ life with her. Hence, the pink walls and seemingly random collection of trinkets, though each and every one has an important memory attached. The pink boa is originally Pilar's, but she passed it on to Elle for good luck at Harvard, because it gave Pilar nothing but good luck every time she wore it. Kershaw the Beanie Puppy is a present from Margot; a gift to Elle in their freshman year when they were each other's Secret Santa. The eye-candy calendar is a chip-in present from the whole Delta Nu house, which (in Serena's words) is supposed to "to keep her focused on the prize."

Back in California, Elle's room (whether at the Woods home or at UCLA) received plenty of welcome visitors, often at every unpredictable hour of the day, so much so that she couldn't see the point of ever locking the door. If she needed a little extra girly privacy, there was always the walk-in-closet, so if anyone just needed to pop in to use her full-length mirror or hair-straightener, they were perfectly welcome to do so. Elle always enjoyed the company, and fancied that the hustle and bustle gave her rooms more perk.

At Harvard law, Elle's room receives no visitors until the night of the Failed Bunny Suit Incident, when Emmett graces it with his presence. _His_ first order of business is to disrupt its harmonizing Feng Shui with nothing less than sharp-tongued (lawyerly?) constructive criticism. Elle is too surprised to put up a heartfelt protest, and Emmett bulldozes right through the place with his hands acting as deadly shears, tearing effortlessly through Elle's carefully constructed bubble of security.

That's only the start of it, and Emmett continues to tip over Elle's neat little world until she has no choice but to tip over with it. Soon he's making near-daily visits, helps her buy a laptop, installs a proper book shelf, and on one occasion brings Bruiser to the vet when he has a tummy ache. Elle, for her part, sends off some of her stuff to storage without being told, gets an extension chord to supply both his and her laptops, and starts stocking up Red Bull for two. If Emmett's spare sweatshirts, notebooks or "Lawyers Do It In Their Briefs" mug end up scattered between Elle's photo frames and scented candles, neither of them comment on it.

Elle submits the paperwork to release the room _long_ before her school tenure ends, what with her decision to abandon her law career partway. She does change her mind quickly about the whole jumping-ship bit, but it's too late to take back the room… Actually it's not _too_ late, but by the time the Wyndham carnival is over, the walls have already been stripped of their pink-ness, and Elle can't be bothered to go through the entire process again with the _exact same room_, because that's just silly. Elle bunks with Vivienne for two weeks, and it's a pretty good time because Enid comes over quite often and they get to do all sorts of girly things together (despite Enid's protests).

Still, it's not quite the same without Emmett regularly invading her privacy.

Emmett and the girls help find her a new place soon enough, just off-campus and suitably cosy. The gang spend a cheerful weekend furnishing it with a mix of things old and new, Elle's boom box providing a hip soundtrack as they laugh and work around each other getting the place to look good.

Even Warner decides to help out, and near the end of the day prompts an awkward confrontation with Emmett in which Warner brandishes the "ex" card and threatens to kick Emmett's ass if he ever hurts Elle. Elle can't decide whether it's an attempt by Warner to win her back or to win _Vivienne_back, but really, she can't blame the poor guy. Emmett puts on a show of being chastised by Warner's warning, but later confesses to Elle that he's more threatened by Bruiser than by Huntington.

This new apartment only lasts Elle a few months, because then it's moving time again. The gang's more prepared the second time round and take to the task armed with re-enforced boxes and a pyramid of masking tape. Paulette drags Kyle along on the argument that he's "used to lifting heavy things", Vivienne supplies the transport vehicle, and Enid takes hold of the check-list.

The new place is already partially furnished, and only requires the personal touch. They agreed beforehand that it wouldn't make sense to paint any of the walls pink, so Elle settles on the compromise of adding pink-hued wall accents all around the living area and bedroom. The old shower curtains are discarded for a new set, the fridge is given a thorough scrub, and a brand new bed is successfully installed without anyone getting injured.

Everyone's tired out by the end of the day, so Emmett calls for pizza as a thank you to everyone for their input, and the whole motley crew eat it out on the narrow patio. It's a relaxed affair; Enid and Vivienne debate different career options, Paulette drops the bomb that she's pregnant, and Emmett picks pepperoni off Elle's pizza when he thinks she's not looking (though she totally is).

When they're gone, Elle stands in the middle of the quiet apartment, hands on hips, and takes in the view with a critical eye.

"It'll do," she says, mostly to herself. "For _now_, anyway."

She goes to the main bathroom, and Emmett's already there, brushing his teeth. She shoulder-bumps him out of the way so she can reach her toner bottles, and he turns to watch with a smirk and a half as she carefully removes the day's make-up. Elle doesn't say anything, but just smirks right back, and lets him bump her out of the way when he reaches for the dental floss.

Yeah, this'll do just fine.


	5. Of Family

**Of Family**

After Emmett is made co-counsel on the Wyndham case, he calls his mom to break the good news. There are two layers to his mom's joy: Emmett is _finally_ getting the break he deserves, and holy _moly_ Brooke Wyndham. Emmett is only vaguely aware of her celebrity status, but his mom is more than happy to talk at length about Brooke, most of which involves far more information than Emmett is willing to hear.

As the conversation winds down, Emmett's mom suddenly asks about "that girl that (he's) been helping." Emmett replies that Elle got the internship, meaning that they'll be working together. Emmett's mom says a drawn-out "Ohhh" of thoughtfulness that doesn't really mean anything, so Emmett just rolls his eyes and changes the topic, as he usually does.

When the trial date draws nearer Callahan milks Emmett's time for all it's worth, leaving little of it spare, but he continues the phone calls with regularity. His mom insists that she understands, and tells him that she's so proud and happy for him. Emmett says thank you and means it, and just to drop a little something into the conversation, adds that he has a new suit to wear for trial. His mom pauses, and he thinks that he can hear her smiling.

"And is it a sharp new suit?" she asks.

"Yes, it's as sharp as a… very sharp thing," Emmett says. "Elle took me shopping, I didn't really have a choice."

"Ohhhh," says Emmett's mom.

"She doesn't like that me like _that_," Emmett says, and this is the first time that he's mentioned Elle in any capacity beyond that of just a friend. Saying it out loud jars something loose inside of Emmett, and he starts talking in the awkward halting manner of men everywhere who try to explain something to their mom when they can't quite find the words to do it right. He talks about how Elle makes him happy, how Elle being happy makes him even happier, and how he's terrified of losing her if she decides to stick to the plan of getting Warner back.

Emmett's mom listens to him without interrupting, and when he finishes the tirade, there's a quiet moment where she waits patiently to see if he's done.

"And… yeah," says Emmett.

Then his mom starts talking again, her voice taking on a quality that he hasn't heard since high school, long before he (metaphorically) hitched up his pants and walked off into the big bad world of tertiary academia armed with nothing but guts and a corduroy jacket. She tells Emmett things he already knows: stuff about courage having many different colours, seizing the day, and all that jazz. It's less about what's being said and more about _how_ it's being said, and for a moment it feels like his mom is right there, giving him a hug that he hadn't realised he'd needed.

The conversation sets forth a chain reaction in Emmett's head. By hook or by crook, he's going to tell Elle. The worst that can happen is… Actually, Emmett prefers not going down that line of thinking, and instead focuses on getting his own act in order.

Life has a funny way of throwing a wrench in the works. The last thing he expects is to be confronted with an image of Elle's tear-stained cheeks and a wide-eyed look of utter helplessness. Emmett curses himself for his slow reaction – he'd always been slow, even as a kid – and wishes he'd been fast enough to hold her, to reassure her, to tell her that she is right, that she is good, that she is so much better.

Instead, he can only make his confession to her closed door, and has no idea whether she can hear him.

Later, when Emmett sees her again there are no tears on her cheeks, only a blush of determination that out-glows the pink of her jacket-dress. He takes a measure of pride in having played a part in bringing her to what she's become, and the trial moves to its peak faster than anything Emmett could have hoped for. A new moment is presented in the afterglow of Elle's success, but Warner has just as much skill in recognizing opportunity. No one can accuse Emmett of not being a gentleman, so he leaves Elle to make her decision with Warner on her own terms.

Emmett walks away, but doesn't get very far before he's accosted by Mr and Mrs Woods, both of whom start gushing happily about their daughter in a way Emmett immediately finds familiar. They insist that they take him out to dinner right there and then to celebrate, and Emmett is buoyed enough by their infectious enthusiasm that it never even crosses his mind to say no.

Emmett suggests a restaurant, guessing blindly to the sort of spread that Woods senior and his missus would like. Mrs Woods claims she's perfectly happy with wherever as long as the bar is stocked, and that leaves Emmett free to answer Mr Woods' questions about what his little girl has been up to for the past year. Emmett finds himself telling one Elle story after another, easing into dinner with anecdotes that make all three of them smile.

Just as they're deciding on desert, Elle arrives. Emmett is sure that surprise is written all over his face when she pulls out the free chair next to him and sits down, and there's a finality to her movements that suggest a sort of homecoming.

"Ice-cream," Elle says, and leans over to peer at Emmett's menu. "I feel like ice-cream."

"Strawberry?" Emmett suggests.

"With sprinkles," Elle says.

A conversation starts up between Elle and her parents, but the words wash over Emmett meaninglessly because Elle's hand is on his, her fingers curled almost absentmindedly over his wrist. Emmett is finally drawn back when he hears Mrs Woods say, "Emmett is such a nice boy, Elle."

Elle looks at Emmett, and it's only because her parents are sitting right opposite that Emmett does not kiss her there and then. "Yes, I know," she says.

Mr Woods coughs gently and the waiter arrives with desert. Emmett and Elle share the ice-cream, and Emmett can feel his restlessness mirrored by hers. It seems to take years to finish desert and take care of the tab, but Emmett holds on to his patience, though he takes Elle's hand in his when they walk her parents back to their hotel.

When the Woods parents are gone inside, Emmett pulls Elle into their long overdue hug. She buries her face in his shirt and winds her arms inside his jacket, locking herself in place like she's afraid he'll fly away. Emmett holds on to her in a way that he hopes will show that he won't, opting not to speak useless nothings when they know they're worth so much more. They remain there, quiet and content, and Emmett thinks about the past year and (hopefully) the years that'll follow, and it fills him with sense of peace like he's never known.

Eventually Emmett lets his fingers trail up Elle's temple, pushing stray strands of hair behind her ear. When she tilts her head to look at him, they finally take that first kiss.

It feels like it has taken Emmett forever to get here, but to be fair, the kiss feels like it goes on forever as well.

That night, Emmett calls his mom. She starts by congratulating him for the trial success, which disorients Emmett for a moment because he'd forgotten all about that. Emmett's mom asks him what's up, because there's something in his voice she can't quite figure out, and that's when Emmett mentions that he and Elle would like to come down next weekend to visit. Elle leans over to the phone receiver to chirp, "Hi, Emmett's mom!" and Emmett kisses her nose for good measure.

His mom laughs, and instead of picking up the thread to tease her son, she heads on to a list of things they can do for the weekend.


End file.
